The Larch. East of the mountains, in the passes like Blewett, the autumnal swipes of yellow that the genus Larix gives are a stimulating syncopation with the forest green.
2 thoughts on “Our Daily Sykes #249 – The Deciduous Conifer”
When I worked in the nursery business and customers would walk in with a dead tree in a pot, its needles or leaves all brown and curled from lack of water (or too much water, or some other abuse or from the unexplained wrath of God), we’d say “I see what the problem is…it’s the wrong color.” Sometimes we said this to each other before the customer was in earshot, because while we thought this wry observation was the pinnacle of mirth, the customers usually received it less enthusiastically. Anyway, because I’m not very familiar with the Larix gang it’s tempting for me to look at these conifers and say “they’re the wrong color”, but they are most emphatically alive and beautifully hued.
On this continent, I’ve learned, most of the Larix gang are Canadians. Those that make it down here find it too warm at our lower altitudes and so hang out in the passes. Canadians don’t give a second thought to seeing a Larix. It happens all the time and is a great guard against any prejudice towards yellow trees. They cannot be cast as “strangers.”
When I worked in the nursery business and customers would walk in with a dead tree in a pot, its needles or leaves all brown and curled from lack of water (or too much water, or some other abuse or from the unexplained wrath of God), we’d say “I see what the problem is…it’s the wrong color.” Sometimes we said this to each other before the customer was in earshot, because while we thought this wry observation was the pinnacle of mirth, the customers usually received it less enthusiastically. Anyway, because I’m not very familiar with the Larix gang it’s tempting for me to look at these conifers and say “they’re the wrong color”, but they are most emphatically alive and beautifully hued.
On this continent, I’ve learned, most of the Larix gang are Canadians. Those that make it down here find it too warm at our lower altitudes and so hang out in the passes. Canadians don’t give a second thought to seeing a Larix. It happens all the time and is a great guard against any prejudice towards yellow trees. They cannot be cast as “strangers.”